Wind Power Helps Roast 14 Million Christmas Turkeys In England

Last year, England’s vast wind farms generated enough power to roast millions of Christmas turkeys, and that trend is likely to continue this year with more wind turbines coming online as England looks to boost its renewable energy sources.

According to figures released Monday by RES Group, one of the world’s leading renewable-energy developers, approximately 14 million turkeys were roasted last Christmas thanks to wind power, as reported by businessgreen.com.

"Why dream of a white Christmas when you can have a green one instead?" David Handley, RES chief economist said. "These statistics underline the importance of boosting home-grown renewable energy sources to bridge the generation gap.”

England is known for its on- and offshore wind generation, and wind plays a key part in reaching the European Union-mandated goal of 30 percent renewable electricity generation by 2020.

In November General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) added two wind farms in central England, which are expected to produce 40-megawatts of capacity. That’s enough to meet the energy needs of approximately 30,000 homes.

“Onshore wind is the cheapest form of renewable energy deployable at mass scale in this country, so projects like GE’s are the most cost-effective way of helping the U.K. to move from dirty fossil fuels to clean low carbon energy,” Robert Norris, head of communications at RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind industry in Britain, said.

Today, England generates 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and more than half of that comes from wind energy, according to Norris.

Besides trying to meet the EU’s target, England has its own ambitious goals to cut its carbon footprint by 80 percent by 2050.

To help curb emissions, England plans to build a $26 billion nuclear power plant, which is expected to generate around 5 percent of England’s energy generating capacity.

Not only was there enough power to roast millions of turkeys, wind power could have also baked 2 million mince pies or 111 million batches of Brussels sprouts.

“British wind will play a vital role this Christmas, insulating our homes from overdependence on foreign gas imports and helping keep costs lower as gas prices rise," Handley said.